Como Show: headphone stunners in Headzones

For some showgoers it’s all about headphones, and the main Headzone at the Australian Hi-Fi & AV Show has some top-level product available to visitors to audition.

One impressive combination is the $8999 Woo Audio 3ES, the company’s flagship electrostatic headphone amplifier and preamplifier. It shares the same architecture as the WA33 dynamic headphone amplifier, being a two-unit design with the amplifier docking onto the power supply. The 3ES employs two 6SN7 driver tubes pushing four 300B power tubes as the output stage and one rectifier tube in the centre of the amp.

Sony is also in attendance at the Headzones area with its DMP-Z1 Signature Series digital music player, the latest (and more gold-laden) incranation of its high-end headphone amplifier, handling High Resolution Audio up to native DSD 11.2MHz/PCM 384kHz/32bit and delivering around 1500mW (16Ω) of headphone output power, here driving the $1199 MDR-Z7Mk2 headphones.

More on the show, which runs until Sunday afternoon at the Como Hotel in South Yarra, at avhub.com.au/show

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